{"id":172451,"date":"2017-01-09T03:29:32","date_gmt":"2017-01-08T21:59:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=172451"},"modified":"2017-01-10T01:36:47","modified_gmt":"2017-01-09T20:06:47","slug":"lasantha-wickrematunge-murder-investigation-igp-awaits-sirisena-wickremesinghe-approval-to-interrogate-gota-and-fonseka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/lasantha-wickrematunge-murder-investigation-igp-awaits-sirisena-wickremesinghe-approval-to-interrogate-gota-and-fonseka\/","title":{"rendered":"Lasantha Wickrematunge Murder Investigation: IGP Awaits Sirisena-Wickremesinghe Approval To Interrogate Gota And Fonseka"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Amidst loads of criticism for postponing the Local Government Elections for citing different reasons, the Yahapalanaya government led by President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe are both delaying in providing authority to question the former Defense Secretary <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Gotabaya+Rajapaka&amp;x=12&amp;y=8\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Gotabaya Rajapaka<\/span><\/a> and current Field Marshal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Sarath+Fonseka&amp;x=11&amp;y=9\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Sarath Fonseka<\/span><\/a> over the murder of Sunday Leader Editor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Lasantha+Wickrematunge&amp;x=10&amp;y=8\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Lasantha Wickrematunge<\/span><\/a>, Colombo Telegraph has learnt.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/fonseka_mahinda_gotabhaya.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1986\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/fonseka_mahinda_gotabhaya.jpg\" alt=\"fonseka_mahinda_gotabhaya\" width=\"640\" height=\"409\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/fonseka_mahinda_gotabhaya.jpg 598w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/fonseka_mahinda_gotabhaya-300x191.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>According to the sources close to IGP Pujith Jayasunadara, the preliminary investigation into the high profile murder has now been completed and requires questioning the hierarchy of the former Rajapaksa regime that was in power during the death of Wickrematunge.<\/p>\n<p>However the secret unit established in between the decision makers and police preliminary investigators needs to decide if the political authorities requires to proceed and are now waiting for President Sirisena and Premier Wickremesinghe to authorize the questioning of Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka prior to questioning Mahinda Rajapaksa.<\/p>\n<p>Political commentators believe that while President Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremeinghe are both attempting to take advantage of this situation for the sake of gaining political mileage over each other prior to the Local Government Elections.<\/p>\n<p>Whilst Premier Wickremesinghe hopes that the Sri Lanka Freedom Party could be further destabilized as long as Gotabaya Rajapaksa is kept free, President Sirisena is also playing the political card to safeguard the SLFP by protecting war heroes in order to drum up support from his voter base prior to holding the Local Government Elections.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A number of other similar high profile cases, also concluded at the preliminary stages are awaiting approval to proceed further&#8221; our source said. <strong><em>(Janaka Ranaweera)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":144967,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2186,1,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-172451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-featured-news","category-news","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - 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